Civ VII PC system requirements are now available!

[Thomas Davie]

This is the specific system (a mini pc) that I ordered just to play Civ 7, Humankind and Millenia. It is upgradeable from 32gb > 64gb ram and you can add another SSD if wanted (it comes with a 1TB drive).

I currently use an M1 Macbook Air /16gb/1TB to play Civ VI (both natively on the Mac and within Parallels > Windows 11 Pro) and several other games with no issues/lagging. So then I just started comparing CPU/dedicated/integrated graphics) between the M1 and various newer AMD/Intel graphics combinations.

Settled on this, which I ordered from Amazon Canada for $700 Cdn/ $503 US/ 471 Euro/ 389 UK lbs

Beelink | Beelink SER7 7840HS AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840HS 65W TDP 8 Cores/16 Threads, 5.

www.bee-link.com

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CH7XHM7M?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

When not playing Civ 7 I will be using as a chess server/ library server for an ereader. When I find a good price on 32gb sodimm ddr5 I will be upgrading from 32 > 64gb

Hope this helps someone. I will be receiving this in 3 days, will install some games and report back here. Installed OS is Win 11 Pro.

Tom
( Haven’t posted here in years since way before moving to another province)

CPU AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS
Graphics AMD Radeon 780M

I literally will not be playing anything but turn based games on this.

 

[Riconatic]

I literally will not be playing anything but turn based games on this.

When above statement is true where is the 64Gb RAM needed? Is it the chess server?
With the resolution you can use with that computer there is very close to zero games that even need 32Gb. And zero games that need 64Gb.

 

[Thomas Davie]

When above statement is true where is the 64Gb RAM needed? Is it the chess server?
With the resolution you can use with that computer there is very close to zero games that even need 32Gb. And zero games that need 64Gb.

You ate 100% correct! Hash tables in chess will take as much ram as you have. I would prefer a fully loaded out Mac Studio with 192gb ram - but I don’t have a spare 10k. I use Hiarcs Pro multicore.

Tom

 

[Riconatic]

You ate 100% correct! Hash tables in chess will take as much ram as you have. I would prefer a fully loaded out Mac Studio with 192gb ram - but I don’t have a spare 10k. I use Hiarcs Pro multicore.

Tom

Getting lot’s of memory with multiple ram sticks can lead to situation where one needs to sacrifice ram speeds. That leads to lower game performance especially with integrated graphics.

That mini PC does not have that great ram speed to beging with. Hopefully you do not need to make it even worse then. I guess not.

 

[Thomas Davie]

Getting lot’s of memory with multiple ram sticks can lead to situation where one needs to sacrifice ram speeds. That leads to lower game performance especially with integrated graphics.

That mini PC does not have that great ram speed to beging with. Hopefully you do not need to make it even worse then. I guess not.

There are no issues I have multiple sticks of ram. And I can always change 2x32gb to something else. This isn’t a custom built system at all; something off the shelf w/ability to change ram, SSD. I can always disable the integrated GPU and run an eGPU off of the USB4.

But, I’ll see soon enough

Tom

 

[Ambiorix]

Can anyone say if following GPU's meet the 'recommended' requirements ?

• AMD Radeon 610M
• Intel UHD Graphics
• Intel Iris Xe
• GeForce RTX3050
• GeForce RTX4050
• GeForce RTX4060

Do I need one of the GeForce options to run under 'recommended' requirements ?? Thanks.

 

[Nikolai II]

Do I need one of the GeForce options to run under 'recommended' requirements ?? Thanks.

Yes. Radeon 610m is 2013 model and extremely slow. Iris xe is different models, but all is much weaker than recommended. Same with UHD, several models, all of which afaik is extremely weak compared to 2060.

 

[President Skroob]

Curious where my Zen 2 laptop fares with respect to Minimum and Recommended specs. I got it in Summer of 2020 and has a Zen 2 mobile chip(4800H) with 16 GB of RAM, hence should easily meet Recommended specs for CPU but it's the GPU where I think rubber meets the road in a mobile NVidia 1650 Ti. It's strong enough to meet the Minimum but the question is whether its strong enough to meet Recommended. I suspect that it is but figure I'd float it out there for a 2nd opinion. I do plan on building a new Desktop rig in January to replace one from 2010(with a first Gen i7 and **OLD** GTX 730 that replaced an ATI card that died). New system should do Ultra settings with no problem(Zen 5(9700x(default)/9900x(if price is similar to 9700x)/9800x3D(overkill but that's if I decide to splurge) + RDNA 4(Navi 48) w/ 32-64 GB RAM). Been waiting for Navi 48 for months since Navi 31 and RTX 4k disappointed me. I don't really care if Navi 48 can't top 4090, 7900XTX or even 4080 Super. Just want something that is roughly as strong as the latter for half the price($500). I'm not paying $1k+ for a 5080 given it's been massively cut down to get by China Export sanctions and 5090 is massive overkill while current Lovelace is massively overpriced and won't be dropping because NVidia doesn't care given AI/Server market. AMD needs to get the memo that if they want to move Navi 31, they have to cut prices: 7900XTX for $650-700, 7900XT for $500, if not less. Problem is they're both going for well above that and my prices are with Navi 48 in mind given it is coming in ~7 weeks.

 

[SaberSix]

Black Friday is here:

I have three current options to play Civ VII.

Only one (#3) is easily upgradeable and only WRT the GPU.

In view of the PCIe 3.0 and Gen 9 CPU does it make any sense to replace the 2070 with a 3000 or 4000 nVida card? If so, which do you recommend / how much would you spend?

1) Razer 14 2021: Rizen 5900HX; 16 GB DDR4-3200 soldered; nVidia RTX 3080 8 GB GDDR6

2) Mini-PC: Ryzen 9 7940HS 64 GB DDR5-5600 w/ Radeon 780M

3) ASRock B365M Pro4 Desktop: i9-9900K 32GN DDR4-1060 RTX 2070S (Super) PCIe 3.0

 

[SaberSix]

Black Friday is here:

I have three current options to play Civ VII.

Only one (#3) is easily upgradeable and only WRT the GPU.

In view of the PCIe 3.0 and Gen 9 CPU does it make any sense to replace the 2070 with a 3000 or 4000 nVida card? If so, which do you recommend / how much would you spend?

1) Razer 14 2021: Rizen 5900HX; 16 GB DDR4-3200 soldered; nVidia RTX 3080 8 GB GDDR6

2) Mini-PC: Ryzen 9 7940HS 64 GB DDR5-5600 w/ Radeon 780M

3) ASRock B365M Pro4 Desktop: i9-9900K 32GN DDR4-1060 RTX 2070S (Super) PCIe 3.0

I am rethinking whether to try to up the GPU. Perhaps, I should just live with the 8GB 2070 super as I don't care if I see, or don't fish fish swimming in front of my trireme and in any case I don't have, nor plan to get a 4k monitor.

Rather perhaps I should go for a Rizen 9 5950X and a cheap AM4 mobo that will take my DDR4 RAM (Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200) like the ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus and fit in my Fractal Design R5 case (ATX, mini-ATX).

Any thoughts welcomed.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Most of the civs have been mainly processor-based.

 

[Disgustipated]

Ordered a 4070 video card, that will set me back a bit. And maybe it's not worth it since my motherboard is a bit old, and from what I read I will only get Gen 3 speeds out of that, but one post said it won't affect it that much. At least for what I'm using it for, I don't exactly play FPS games. My computer is going on 6 years old, but my cpu was top of the line when I bought it. I'd like to stretch this thing out to 10 years at least. 12 years would be even better. I don't mind spending the money if it will keep me going another 6 years.

 

[SI-Matt]

A recent problem with another game makes me worried that my graphics card isn't good enough to play CIV 7. I do not know if it is the equivalent of the GPU noted in CIV 7's minimum requirements. I have the Intel UHD on a 1.5 year old laptop. Screen shot of the specs is attached. Please advise.

 

[pokiehl]

A recent problem with another game makes me worried that my graphics card isn't good enough to play CIV 7. I do not know if it is the equivalent of the GPU noted in CIV 7's minimum requirements. I have the Intel UHD on a 1.5 year old laptop. Screen shot of the specs is attached. Please advise.

This doesn't tell us much. What we do know is that your laptop does not have a separate graphics card. Instead, it uses integrated graphics from the CPU. Typically, integrated graphics are pretty bad. What's your laptop's CPU?

 

[Quintillus]

A recent problem with another game makes me worried that my graphics card isn't good enough to play CIV 7. I do not know if it is the equivalent of the GPU noted in CIV 7's minimum requirements. I have the Intel UHD on a 1.5 year old laptop. Screen shot of the specs is attached. Please advise.

My advice would be to not pre-order (unless you're willing to buy a more powerful computer should it not run well), but to wait for release. Then you can either (a) read the forums and see how it runs for others with similar hardware who've taken the plunge, and/or (b) buy the game on Steam, set a timer for 90 minutes, jump into a game, and see how it runs. Steam has a 2-hour return window (in terms of game playtime, but I'm not sure that applies if the game is pre-purchased), so if it really doesn't run well, you can return it. If it runs acceptably, all the better.

As for whether it will play, IMO we do not have enough information yet, but from what has been released it's not looking especially promising. My best guess would be it may run, but the graphics will not be up to the level of smoothness and detail that Firaxis considers the minimum standard. They still might be what you'd consider to be acceptable though, or they might not.

 

[pokiehl]

My best guess would be it may run, but the graphics will not be up to the level of smoothness and detail that Firaxis considers the minimum standard. They still might be what you'd consider to be acceptable though, or they might not.

Assuming the same display device, minimum graphics settings will look the same on an integrated GPU or a 4090.

The difference will manifest in frame rate and stability.

 

[coolhandluke11]

30fps @1080p should be outlawed. thats an assault on your census. One would need a 240hz refresh for that to be bearable. i do know this as i play all games at 720p@30ps @125 hz spread to 32/9 ratio on 7nm tech. An educated guess for 30 fps @1080p spread to 32/9 ratio would require 88x on the red line. rx 8800t amd and two gpus on nvidias blackwell gpus.
GREED IS THE BAIN OF THIS WORLD.

 

[SI-Matt]

This doesn't tell us much. What we do know is that your laptop does not have a separate graphics card. Instead, it uses integrated graphics from the CPU. Typically, integrated graphics are pretty bad. What's your laptop's CPU?

It is 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1235U 1.30 GHz

 

[pokiehl]

12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1235U 1.30 GHz

The base clock is 1.30 GHz, but the actual max speed is higher.

That CPU is actually better than the CPU listed for the "Recommended" specs, so that's good.

The bad news is that the integrated GPU for that CPU (Intel Iris Xe Graphics) is substantially worse than the minimum recommended GPUs.

It'll be hard to say how your laptop will handle the game but my guess is "not well." In general, integrated GPUs are really bad for videogames. Civ 7 will probably come out with a demo (Civ 6's demo came out a couple months AFTER release though). At the least, you can buy on Steam to see how it plays and if it doesn't work well, take advantage of the refund policy. You can refund any game you have owned for less than 14 days and have played for less than 2 hours.

 

[Nikolai II]

Civ 7 will probably come out with a demo

Pretty sure I saw Sarah say somewhere there were no current plans for a demo?